Ecologists are hopping mad after a UK Tiktoker posted footage of himself taking frog eggs from ponds in his local area and putting them in his pool to create a 1.4 million-strong "frog army."
The TikToker who goes by the username 'Thinfrog' has filmed several videos of himself taking frog eggs and tadpoles from local ponds and releasing them into his pool, documenting their journey of turning into frogs.
In one of his videos, the man said: "This is the biggest frog army ever but I kind of regret this because nobody can go in the garden."
The TikTok account has gained over 1.9 million followers and 19 million likes and started the hashtag #frogarmy.
The videos have inspired other frog enthusiasts to release frogs in their backyards and post the videos under the hashtag #frogarmy, sparking a trend that has ecologists concerned. The hashtag has over 400 million views on TikTok with numerous people stitching the original creator's videos with their own and copying his frog-collecting ways.
Marine biologist Dawood Qureshi told Metro.co.uk that mass-breeding frogs is not good for the environment.
"It can cause an influx in frogs that wouldn't normally survive in this environment and that can have adverse effects such as too many predators of various insect species being released without many natural limits."
Qureshi added that the infestation of frogs could lead to the death of other animals like rodents, hedgehogs and foxes in the same habitat as an infestation as big as this "could cause pest control to be called."
"This of course ruins the food chain even further," she said.
Another expert and critic of the #frogarmy trend is ecologist Naomi Davis who told Metro.co.uk the trend needs to stop, as it was "massively irresponsible from an ecological perspective".
While some experts are worried about the ecological impact of releasing large amounts of amphibians at a time, many are convinced the trend is a hoax.
Some TikTok users have even made videos attempting to prove Thinfrog's videos are a hoax, claiming the quality of the videos seems slightly off and that it looks like he has reused footage.
Some have claimed the TikTok of him releasing the frogs looks almost identical to a 2013 Youtube video of frogs being released in a lake near Florida.
One user commented, "Can you even prove this is real?"
